Text+Suggestions+for+Year+12+Novels

To add your own text suggestion - use the "EDIT" link at the right of the page. Click on a field and click the table icon that comes up to make a new row. [|Buy youtube likes] ||
 * **Text Title** || **Text Author** || **Comment** ||
 * The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night || Mark Haddon ||  ||
 * Little Brother || Corey Doctorow || [|Little Brother is about 4 techo-savy teenagers in San Francisco who are picked up by the Department of Homeland Security after a terrorist attack. It has a really interesting angle on information freedom and government control. Corey Doctorow is also really into creative commons and is distributing electronic copies of many of his novels. Little Brother is available for free download under a creative commons licence on Doctorow's website here.]
 * The Kite Runner || Khaled Hosseini || Has some engaging and worthwhile with some really good writing from a class of mixed lower ability and international students. with a mixture of cultures in the classroom we found everyone began on an equal footing, knowing almost nothing of the agfhani setting. The brighter students found it satisfying to. ||
 * Lovely Bones || Alice Sebold || I am about to teach Lovely Bones – the novel, for the second year at Year 12. It has some beautiful language, and the unique point of view enabled the students to write really good essays. Also the characters are accessible. I had to do a lot of pre-teach re time and place – set in the 1970s and the students found that interesting – the advent of feminism etc. The proof will be when the external results come back. ||
 * A Thousand Splendid Suns || Khaled Hosseini ||  ||
 * Dracula || Bram Stoker ||  ||
 * 1984 || George Orwell || I taught it in Year 10 last year (only extracts - EFL class) and they found it fascinating! We saw it in parallel with Huxley's //Brave New World// in the general context of "the future" and both lead to very interesting discussions. ||
 * Tin Soldiers || Ian Bone ||  ||
 * The 5 People You Meet In Heaven || Mitch Albom ||  ||
 * The Land || Mildred D Taylor ||  ||
 * A Lesson Before Dying || Ernest Gaines ||  ||
 * A Gathering of Old Men || Ernest Gaines ||  ||
 * In my Father's House || Ann Rinaldi ||  ||
 * Kindred || Octavia Butler ||  ||
 * All Quiet on the Western Front || Erich Maria Remarque ||  ||
 * To Kill a Mockingbird || Harper Lee ||  ||
 * Montana 1948 || Larry Watson ||  ||
 * Angela's Ashes || Frank McCourt ||  ||
 * Black Swan Green || David Mitchell ||  ||
 * Golden Deeds || Catherine Chidgey ||  ||
 * Falling || Anne Provoost ||  ||
 * The Chocolate War || Robert Cormier || This is a great book, it's short and quick to read but does deal with unpleasant topics - power, manipulation and control, with a horrible ending, but has really good stuff to write about in external exams. Also deals with an individual trying to disturb the universe and take control over their own choices and destiny. Great parallels to American politics of the time 1960/70s and how people lost their trust in people of authority. I have taught it 7/8 times and had good results (always some excellence's) Pink Monkey has some really great purchasable notes on it. ||
 * Tu || Patricia Grace ||  ||
 * My Sister's Keeper || Jodi Picoult ||  ||
 * How I Live Now || Meg Rosoff ||  ||
 * Winterdance || Gary Paulsen ||  ||
 * Compulsion || Tania Roxborogh ||  ||
 * In my Father's Den || Maurice Gee ||  ||
 * Tin Soldiers || Ian Bone ||  ||
 * House Of Tomorrow || Claire Lorrimer ||  ||
 * Looking For Alaska || John Green ||  ||
 * Smashed || Mandy Hagar ||  ||
 * Q & A || Vikas Swarup ||  ||
 * Sanctuary || Kate de Goldi ||  ||
 * The Crush || Scott Monk ||  ||
 * The Bean Trees || Barbara Kingsolver ||  ||
 * The Book Thief || Markus Zusak || Taught it this year for the first time with my Year 12’s they loved it. They are an average class and they coped well with it. Lots to delve into for a variety of levels, would definitely teach again. ||
 * ^  ||^   || I think I would put all his texts at level 2, but Book Thief can certainly stretch into year 13. But read them, if you want some short and amazingly clever examples of use of personification / metaphor they are jam packed with incredibly refreshing and original writing. I am awed by this writer! ||
 * ^  ||^   || We are teaching it to 13ENB - a lower tier year 13 achievement standard class, (one that misses out Shakespeare). It has been fantastic in terms of engagement and response. ||
 * Touching the Void || Joe Simpson ||  ||
 * Genesis || Bernard Beckett ||  ||
 * Looking for Alaska || John || I have read it, as has my son who is a reluctant reader and we both enjoyed it a lot. It does deal with drugs, sex and suicide so could be considered controversial, I guess. However, it is also extremely well written and has a number of ideas that are worth exploring. ||
 * ^  || Green ||   ||
 * ^  ||   || I have taught this book to a lower year 12 and the boys loved it, because it ||
 * ^  ||   || gets to the point of what life is and deals with many teenage issues. The ||
 * ^  ||   || girls like it too and I had a good pass rate. ||
 * You Against Me ||  || Male and female main characters. His sisters says she was raped; Her brother said she asked for it. Very, very cool and raises lots of questions about consent, secrets, family loyalty, parental response etc etc ||
 * Go Ask Alice ||  || We are not teaching Shakespeare to our year 12's this year so I've decided ||
 * ^  ||^   || to do Go Ask Alice to a mixed to low ability class. ||
 * Sleepers ||  || Works well as there is a film you can bribe them with. Our boys have responded positively to it. ||
 * Jolt || Brenard Becket ||  ||
 * Anita and Me || Meera Syal ||  ||
 * The Great Gatsby || F.S. Fitzgerald || My EFL students all fell in love with the beautiful language of this wonderful book and they were touched by the pessimistic message about the death of the American Dream. We had seen the (modern) movie before, which made them want to read the whole thing. ||  ||
 * **Alternative Y12 English** ||  ||   ||
 * Text Title || Text Author || Comment ||
 * Out Walked Mel || Paula Boock ||  ||
 * Thunder Road || Ted Dawe ||  ||
 * Letters from the Coffin Trenches || Ken Cattran ||  ||
 * Black Swan Green || David Mitchell ||  ||
 * Whale Rider || Witi Ihimaera ||  ||
 * Stoner and Spaz || Ron Koertg ||  ||
 * Red Cliff || Bernard Beckett ||  ||
 * Further Back than Zero || Fleur Beale ||  ||
 * Playing to Win || Fleur Beale ||  ||
 * Twelve || Nick McDonell ||  ||
 * Malcolm and Juliet || Bernard Beckett ||  ||
 * Right Where it Hurts || David Hill ||  ||
 * The Edge || Alan Gibbons ||  ||
 * Water in the Blood || Alan Bunn ||  ||
 * A Crime in the Neighbourhood || Suzanne Berne ||  ||
 * A Gathering Light || Jennifer Donnelly ||  ||
 * Baby No Eyes || Patricia Grace ||  ||
 * Before I Die || Jenny Downham ||  ||
 * Boys of Blood and Bone || David Metzenthen ||  ||
 * Bulibasha || Witi Ihimaera ||  ||
 * Cousins || Patricia Grace ||  ||
 * Crime Story || Maurice Gee ||  ||
 * Feral City || Rosie Scott ||  ||
 * Fiela’s Child || Dalene Matthee ||  ||
 * Ganglands || Maureen McCarthy ||  ||
 * Half of a Yellow Sun || Chimanande Adiche ||  ||
 * House of Strife || Maurice Shadbolt ||  ||
 * Into the Wild || Jon Krakauer ||  ||
 * Into Thin Air || Jon Krakauer ||  ||
 * Lord of the Flies || William Golding ||  ||
 * Malcolm and Juliet || Bernard Beckett ||  ||
 * Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha || Roddy Doyle ||  ||
 * Purple Hibiscus || Chimanande Adiche ||  ||
 * Right Where It Hurts || David Hill ||  ||
 * Smith’s Dream || C K Stead ||  ||
 * Sold || Patricia McCormick ||  ||
 * Sons for the Return Home || Albert Wendt ||  ||
 * Spider || William Taylor ||  ||
 * St.Agnes’s Stand || Thomas Eidson ||  ||
 * The Bonesetter’s Daughter || Amy Tan ||  ||
 * The Book of Fame || Lloyd Jones ||  ||
 * The Catcher in the Rye || J D Salinger ||  ||
 * The Crossing || Mandy Hagar ||  ||
 * The Crucible || Arthur Miller ||  ||
 * The Edge || Alan Gibbons ||  ||
 * The God Boy || Ian Cross ||  ||
 * The Help || Kathryn Stockett ||  ||
 * The Kitchen God’s Wife || Amy Tan ||  ||
 * The Scarecrow || Ronald Hugh Morrieson ||  ||
 * The Secret Life of Bees || Sue Monk Kidd ||  ||
 * Twelve || Nick McDonell ||  ||
 * White Teeth || Zadie Smith ||  ||

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